When this happens twice, they're finished and the point at which they stopped determines their fitness level. Students continue until they can no longer reach a station before the beep goes off. After several such repetitions, students move up a fitness level and the time between intervals decreases, making the task more difficult. Students run from one station to the other, wait for a beep, run back, wait for another beep, run back etc. It's simple to administer since it's essentially a shuttle run between two stations set up 20 meters apart. The Beep Test (or Multistage Fitness Test) is a standard test of aerobic fitness used in many physical education programs. The reaction times do not directly correlate with the animals' actualy performance times, but are intended as a metaphor for your performance.Files from the Internet Dick Moss, Editor, Physical Education Note: This auditory test is primarily meant for fun. A standard delay compensation has been built into the test, but your results will vary. Times can vary depending on your operating system, CPU, audio card and device. Subjects who are ill have shown to have slower reaction speeds. Intelligent test subjects have been shown to have faster reaction speeds.
Punishment, stress and threats have all been shown to increase reaction speeds in several studies. Physically fit subjects had faster reaction speeds than those who did not exercise. Reaction times are faster when the stimulus is presented during exhalation vs inhalation. Two studies concluded that people who were extroverted and/or anxious had faster reaction times. Stimulant drugs have shown to increase reaction speeds. AlcoholĪlcohol has been shown to slow reaction times as it slows muscle activation. Distractionĭistractions are shown to increase reaction times. If a subject is giving a warning that a stimuli is coming soon, they react faster. The stronger the sound becomes, the faster the reaction time, until a point where it levels off. If a sound is very faint the reaction time will be longer. If a subject is too aroused or not aroused enough, there reaction times slow. Reaction time is fastest during intermediate levels of arousal. FatigueĪ fatigued subject will react slowly than someone more awake and alert. However if a subject makes an error, there reaction speed will decrease because they are more cautious. Practice is actually shown to increase reaction speed. A study showed that humans react faster to non-speech sound vs. The idea is that left handers have better right/left hemisphere brain communication. Dominant HandĪ study showed that people who are left handed tend to have an inherent advantage in reaction times when using their dominant hand. The exact reason is unknown, but speculation has been made that the reaction time is influenced by different cognitive strategies employed by females. Multiple other studies (included the cited study) have concluded that men have faster auditory reaction times than women. Reaction times tend to rise through adolescence and peak around age 24 and slowly fall back down. a mean auditory reaction time of 284 milliseconds. The study concluded a mean 331 millisecond reaction time for sound vs. The short explanation is that sound takes less time to reach the brain than does visual information. This means you will react faster to a sound than you would a light. Numerous studies (included cited study below) have concluded that the mean auditory reaction time is faster than the mean visual reaction time.
A few notes on auditory reaction times Audio vs Visual Reaction Times